Quote:
Originally Posted by Krauter
Exactly Growler.
...showing the camraderie, fighting spirit and tactics of the units makes me think, "gee, the germans had some of the most elite and trained Army units in the war... I wonder how they acted and fought together?"
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In short, the answer is, "Yes" though the volume of material to support that answer is small, usually in German, and heavily laced with the propaganda at the time. But certain assumptions can be safely made when consideration is taken of units like Peiper's
Liebstandarte Adolf Hitler and the mission entrusted to them in
Wacht am Rhein, as well as Skorzeny's Kommando unit. Despite the war circumstances, both those units still had high
esprit de corps and morale.
You will find some passages in texts today that do a little of that;
The Longest Winter (Alex Kershaw) includes at least some mention of some of the troops in the Fallshirmjager unit that was held up by LT Bouck's I&R Platoon of the 394th on 16 Dec 44 at Lanzerath. Most of the impression is from the American side, but there are a few Germans who related their parts of the story with candor.
Probably one of the better WW2 books I've read lately, it is the story of Bouck's platoon, but it weaves in the greater theater-wide story as backdrop. Pick it up sometime for a good read.